(a) Findings
The Congress finds the following:
(1) The rapidly developing array of Internet and other interactive computer services available to individual Americans represent an extraordinary advance in the availability of educational and informational resources to our citizens.
(2) These services offer users a great degree of control over the information that they receive, as well as the potential for even greater control in the future as technology develops.
(3) The Internet and other interactive computer services offer a forum for a true diversity of political discourse, unique opportunities for cultural development, and myriad avenues for intellectual activity.
(4) The Internet and other interactive computer services have flourished, to the benefit of all Americans, with a minimum of government regulation.
(5) Increasingly Americans are relying on interactive media for a variety of political, educational, cultural, and entertainment services.
(6) The growth of the Internet has only amplified the importance of protecting the "motherhood and apple pie" virtues embraced in good faith across partisan divisions, such as free speech and individual privacy.
(7) The development of the Internet over the past thirty years has led to a dilemma, wherein any weakening of the liability shield originally provided by this Section would in practice benefit the largest and richest information content providers, which are the very ones that society has come to trust the least.
(8) The possibility of Internet use to harm individuals is easy to demonstrate anecdotally, but the extent, nature, contributing factors and balance of harms versus benefits are difficult to study rigorously on a nationwide level.
(9) Public health, free expression and free enterprise are all best served when individuals and families have a wide choice of interactive computer services. The variety of the Internet environment, and thus the public interest, benefit when frivolous litigation is resolved quickly.
(10) Many developments in Internet technology are direct descendants of tools and ideas present in 1996 and known to the original authors of this Section, but their present state is in tension with ideals this Section was written to uphold, such as maximizing user control over their own Internet experience, maintaining a vigorous free market of Internet services, and preserving individual privacy. 

(b) Policy
It is the policy of the United States---
(1) to promote the continued development of the Internet and other interactive computer services and other interactive media;
(2) to foster a vibrant and competitive free market for the Internet and other interactive computer services, unfettered by Federal or State regulation;
(3) to encourage the development of technologies which maximize user control over what information is received by individuals, families, and schools who use the Internet and other interactive computer services;
(4) to remove disincentives for the development and utilization of blocking and filtering technologies that empower parents to restrict their children's access to objectionable or inappropriate online material; and
(5) to ensure vigorous enforcement of Federal criminal laws to deter and punish trafficking in obscenity, stalking, and harassment by means of computer.

(c) Protection for free speech, privacy, and "Good Samaritan" blocking and screening of offensive material
(1) Treatment of publisher or speaker
No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.
(A) Accordingly, no cause of action may be brought and no liability may be imposed upon a provider or user of an interactive computer service for the exercise of traditional editorial functions upon information provided by another information content provider (including but not limited to the removal, preservation, selection, prioritization, excerpting, archival, categorization or arrangement of such information, as well as decisions about the timing or rate of presentation of such information), unless:
(i) the specific system that the provider of the interactive computer service uses to determine the timing or rate of content presentation is shown, by clear and convincing evidence involving the content so presented, to be a substantial factor toward foreseeable harm to a known minor; or
(ii) the specific system that the provider of the interactive computer service uses to perform traditional editorial functions is dependent upon information gathered from the users of that interactive computer service in a manner that a reasonable person would deem unwanted surveillance or an invasion of privacy.
(B) The immunity from suit and from liability established by paragraph (A) does not extend to the publications and speech of an information content provider made on its own behalf.
(C) No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be compelled by the Federal government, or the government of any State, to express what a reasonable person would consider a political opinion, to limit or modify the provision of services or change its manner of performing traditional editorial functions in order to privilege the opinions of the Federal or State government, or to disclose information that is not purely factual and uncontroversial.

(2) Civil liability
No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be held liable on account of---
(A) any action voluntarily taken in good faith to restrict access to or availability of material that the provider or user considers to be obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, excessively violent, harassing, or otherwise objectionable, whether or not such material is constitutionally protected; or
(B) any action taken to enable or make available to information content providers or others the technical means to restrict access to material described in paragraph (A).

(d) Obligations of interactive computer service
A provider of interactive computer service shall, at the time of entering an agreement with a customer for the provision of interactive computer service and in a manner deemed appropriate by the provider, notify such customer that parental control protections (such as computer hardware, software, or filtering services) are commercially available that may assist the customer in limiting access to material that is harmful to minors. Such notice shall identify, or provide the customer with access to information identifying, current providers of such protections. Likewise, a provider of interactive computer service shall, at the time of entering an agreement with a customer for the provision of interactive computer service and in a manner deemed appropriate by the provider, describe the methods by which the provider obtains data about the customer, the types of data so obtained, the parties with whom the data is to be shared, and where applicable the provisions for requesting copies of such data from the provider, for withdrawing consent to obtain such data, and for requesting the deletion of such data.

(e) Effect on other laws
(1) No effect on criminal law
Nothing in this section shall be construed to impair the enforcement of section 223 or 231 of this title, chapter 71 (relating to obscenity) or 110 (relating to sexual exploitation of children) of title 18, or any other Federal criminal statute.

(2) No effect on intellectual property law
Nothing in this section shall be construed to limit or expand any law pertaining to intellectual property.

(3) State law
Nothing in this section shall be construed to prevent any State from enforcing any State law that is consistent with this section. No cause of action may be brought and no liability may be imposed under any State or local law that is inconsistent with this section.

(4) No effect on communications privacy law
Nothing in this section shall be construed to limit the application of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 or any of the amendments made by such Act, or any similar State law.

(5) No effect on sex trafficking law
Nothing in this section (other than subsection (c)(2)(A)) shall be construed to impair or limit---
(A) any claim in a civil action brought under section 1595 of title 18, if the conduct underlying the claim constitutes a violation of section 1591 of that title;
(B) any charge in a criminal prosecution brought under State law if the conduct underlying the charge would constitute a violation of section 1591 of title 18; or
(C) any charge in a criminal prosecution brought under State law if the conduct underlying the charge would constitute a violation of section 2421A of title 18, and aiding or abetting of prostitution is illegal in the jurisdiction where the defendant's aiding or abetting of prostitution was targeted.

(f) Definitions
As used in this section:

(1) Internet
The term "Internet" means the international computer network of both Federal and non-Federal interoperable packet switched data networks.

(2) Interactive computer service
The term "interactive computer service" means any information service, system, or access software provider that provides or enables computer access by multiple users to a computer server, including specifically a service or system that provides access to the Internet and such systems operated or services offered by libraries or educational institutions.

(3) Information content provider
The term "information content provider" means any person or entity that is responsible, in whole or in part, for the creation or development of information provided through the Internet or any other interactive computer service.

(4) Access software provider
The term "access software provider" means a provider of software (including client or server software), or enabling tools that do any one or more of the following:
(A) filter, screen, allow, or disallow content;
(B) pick, choose, analyze, or digest content; or
(C) transmit, receive, display, forward, cache, search, subset, organize, reorganize, or translate content.

(5) Known minor
The term "known minor" means a user of an interactive computer service of whom that interactive computer service has actual knowledge that said user is under 18 years of age.